Science

The Falcon-9 craft touched down late on Monday night, about 10km from its launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida. This particular rocket is just a step on the path to reusability , though. SpaceX had twice attempted to land the Falcon 9 on a floating platform in the Atlantic. The Blue Origin rocket that landed upright in November made a much shorter sub-orbital flight. (more...)

Google plans to make its self-driving cars unit, which will offer rides for hire, a stand-alone business under its parent company, Alphabet Inc , next year, Bloomberg reported last week. Driverless cars are bound to become a thing in the not-so-distant future and it seems technology giant Google is getting ready to dip its toes in autonomous driving technology for series production cars. (more...)

Japanese media reported that Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida plans to deliver a handwritten apology by Abe when he meets with his South Korean counterpart, Yun Byung-se. "From now on, Japan and South Korea will enter a new era". Japan had argued that the issue was settled by a 1965 treaty that restored diplomatic ties and was accompanied by more than $800m in economic aid and loans from Tokyo to Seoul. (more...)

That's exactly what one United Kingdom lady heard - but in her case, it was indeed a call from space: astronaut Tim Peake dialled a wrong number. However, on Thursday British astronaut Tim Peake did just that. Space station commander Scott Kelly also tweeted from orbit on Christmas , sending holiday greetings along with a whirlwind video of the space station orbiting the Earth. (more...)

The Samsung Galaxy A9 has officially been released with much fanfare. It is worth stating that the SIM slot in Galaxy A9 is not a hybrid dual-SIM slot as we've newly discerned in many other smartphones. Up front, there is an 8-megapixel selfie camera. Although the new Samsung Galaxy was revealed, the price and the launch date are not known yet. It comes with a fingerprint unlocking system, which supports Samsung Pay mobile payment. (more...)

In the early hours of Saturday morning, the fire prompted mandatory evacuations for the Solimar Beach area as the blaze threatened about 35 homes in the community. About 600 Ventura County firefighters were attacking the rapidly growing fire on the ground and from the air, while part of a highway northwest of Los Angeles had to be shut down , Ventura County Fire Department Capt. (more...)

The Ventura County Office of Emergency Services said all evacuation orders are expected to be lifted at 5 p.m. Saturday. "We will not leave until we know every ember has been extinguished", said Battalion Chief Fred Burris, of the Ventura County Fire Department. (more...)

We were not, however, warned at the beginning of last night's Christmas Day feature length episode of Downton that we would all be in serious danger of drowning in our own tears for the entire two hours it was on. The Dowager Countess , played by the scene-stealing Dame Maggie Smith, observes: "Every year we drink to the future, whatever it may bring". "It feels extraordinary; we remember the first day we were ever here, and now here we are on this attractive sunny day. (more...)

Peake is accompanied on his mission by Russian astronaut Yuri Malenchenko and Timothy Kopra from the USA. He is Britain's first publicly funded astronaut and the first Briton to visit the space station, according to USA Today . Generally, astronauts seem to get a kick out of being able to call people on Earth. Meanwhile, flying low over the rooftops, it could easily be mistaken for Santa's sleigh. (more...)

Peake is joined on the Space Station by NASA's Scott Kelly and Tim Kopra and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Volkov, Mikhail Kornienko and Yuri Malenchenko. From southern England, it will appear in the West at about 4.24pm and remain visible for six minutes before disappearing below the south-eastern horizon. (more...)

Yahoo said it would provide notifications to specific users and let them know how to address the security situation. They include enabling two-step verification or Yahoo's Account Key password-free login system; checking recent account activity and settings for suspicious signs; and using strong passwords that are not shared with other people or other accounts. (more...)

He called from the International Space Station about 400 kilometers from the surface of earth and said, 'Hello, Is This Planet Earth?' . Earlier this week, the space traveller was forced to leave a voicemail on his parents' answering machine when they missed his call. (more...)

We think the conversation may have gone a little like this helpfully illustrated via Adele's new video . The 43-year old British astronaut arrived on the ISS earlier this month, alongside two others from America and Russian Federation. (more...)

Major Peake quickly took to Twitter to insist that the incident was not a prank call "just a wrong number!" Astronaut Tim Peake is the first person in space to make a prank call, that we know of. From southern England, it will appear in the West at about 4.24pm and remain visible for around six minutes. It came as many Britons looked forward to getting a glimpse of the ISS on Christmas Day. (more...)

Amnesty said that Russian bombers targeted residential areas and killed 119 civilians in five of the attacks it studied. It said there was evidence that Russia's military "unlawfully used unguided bombs in densely populated areas and inherently indiscriminate cluster munitions". (more...)

On board the International Space Station, Major Peake insisted he was not playing a joke on the woman he rang by accident. Peake later clarified that it wasn't a prank call and he had genuinely dialled a wrong number. "For every month that the crewmember is in orbit they get what's called a bonus container and they can make special requests", Vickie Kloeris, the food manager for the ISS told Smithsonian.com . (more...)

NASA astornaut Scott Kelly and other members of his crew, Tim Kopra and Time Peake, sent a special holiday greeting to Earth. In the case of Tim Peake , his Christmas dinner was prepared by chef Heston Blumenthal and a group of schoolkids who won a contest called the "Great British Space Dinner". (more...)

If they hadn't fixed the problem, a Russian Progress cargo ship carrying almost three tons of food and supplies would not be able to dock as scheduled on Wednesday. He is the first United Kingdom astronaut to fly to the ISS. Briton Tim Peake , who like Kopra arrived to the ISS days before, added his warm wishes. (more...)

If they hadn't fixed the problem, a Russian Progress cargo ship carrying almost three tons of food and supplies would not be able to dock as scheduled on Wednesday. He is only the second British citizen to travel to space and the first to work on the ISS. "He will be with us around the Christmas festive table as a giant cardboard cut-out which the people in the village very kindly made for the celebration party they had on launch day". (more...)

Scot Kelly from NASA has been at the Station from past one year, and the two astronauts came out of the hatch of the space station so that they could free the stuck rail auto by releasing its brakes. The International Space Station Progress 62 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:44 a.m. EST. The craft is bringing along with it 2.8 tons of food and supplies. (more...)